Cleanup Crew To Move Tons Of Beach Litter

For The 5th Year, Thousands Of Volunteers Will Remove Trash And Collect Evidence Along Florida's Coastline.

September 16, 1992|By John J. Glisch Of The Sentinel Staff

COCOA BEACH — Florida's beaches are known for many things - snow-white sand, crystal-clear water and mile after mile of rolling surf.

Last year, they become known for something else - a place where 250 tons of garbage, litter and junk were picked up in one day by volunteers.

About 20,000 beach cleaners are expected to be back Saturday as they hit 1,200 miles of Florida coastline in the fifth annual effort to clean trash and focus attention on coastal pollution.

Some of the 450 sites on the cleanup list are in Brevard and Volusia counties, including Cocoa Beach, Daytona Beach, the Indian River Lagoon and the Halifax and Tomoka rivers.

''Each year, I keep hoping that we're not going to have anything to pick up, but unfortunately that's not the case,'' said Rita Alexander of the Environmental Council of Volusia and Flagler counties. ''It seems to get worse.''

Other environmentalists have the same lament.

''The amount of garbage is about the same now as five years ago,'' said Heidi Lovett of the Center for Marine Conservation in Tampa. ''I realize it takes time for public attention to take hold.''

By far, Lovett said, most garbage on the beach can be blamed on sloppy beach-goers or pleasure boaters just offshore.

Their trash includes plastic cups, forks and spoons, foam cups, glass bottles, plastic jugs, beer cans and cigarette butts that can be found in abundance from Jacksonville to Pensacola.

For instance, last year's cleanup found 18,826 cigarette butts on Volusia's beaches and 7,895 along the Brevard coast, a fraction of what experts say is tossed onto beaches yearly.

''Unfortunately, people go to the beach and are just lazy,'' Lovett said. ''We're still trying to figure a way to reach them, especially the 18-to-20 age bracket that go to the beach to party'' and leave debris behind.

Besides removing garbage, volunteers also will collect information that is used by the Center for Marine Conservation to pinpoint sources of trash and prosecute violators.

Under federal law, persons convicted of disposing plastic trash anywhere at sea or other trash within three miles of shore can face fines up to $25,000.

Cruise lines are among the worst culprits, Lovett said.

''We're still finding a lot of trash with cruise line logos on it,'' she said. ''We're also getting a lot more eyewitness accounts of cruise lines dumping trash overboard.''

Saturday's cleanup will mark the start of a more ambitious plan to remove trash from underwater sites and coral reefs. In all, a dozen underwater locations will be cleaned.

One is an artificial reef about 10 miles off of Ponce Inlet in Volusia County. Last year, divers pulled 180 pounds of fishing line and anchor lines from the reef.

The cleanup program is starting to draw a growing number of volunteers from Central Florida's inland communities, Alexander said.

Many are coming from Orlando. Scuba divers from the Lake County Sheriff's Department are also chipping in.